And given that the soulful monologue in "Sideways" comes from the depressed Miles, who probably would be considered in real life a "problem drinker," a sad sack with none of the aspirational characteristics marketers remind us are important in selling the "wine life-style," it seems there's a bit of cognitive dissonance in the California air.

And now, in Kennedy's latest novel, Paradise, just out from Knopf, we meet thirty-six-year-old sad sack Hannah Luckraft, who sells cardboard for a living and whose spirit--indeed, whose life--is being steadily eroded by her insatiable thirst for alcohol.

This is the one where the irresponsible sad sack winds up being a foster father to an adorable kid (so you don't confuse it with the irresponsible sad sack caddy or the irresponsible sad sack millionaire or the ISS band singer movies).

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